The Divide American Injustice - 1247 Words

The American justice system is divided between the wealthy and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. A system that has been systematically built to favor wealthy Americans and punish poor Americans, as suggested in Matt Taibbi’s book â€Å"The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealthy Gap†. Meanwhile, poor Americans, specifically people of color, face punishment far beyond crime allegedly committed. In the following paragraphs, we will explore the root causes behind systematic forces that oppress and criminalize poverty, but also perpetuate white collar crimes among the wealthy. American society has developed systematic forces to oppress and criminalize individuals who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Much of police†¦show more content†¦The second disorder falls under social chaos such as noisy neighbours, noisy youth groups on street corners, and aggressive panhandlers. These two types of disorders were thought to increase fear among a community as suggested by the article ‘Broken Windows†. To execute on the broken windows theory, police officers were assigned on foot patrols in communities who had high concentrations of both physical and social disorders (mainly in poor communities). After a five year study conducted by the Police Foundation in Washington, D.C, foot patrol did not reduce crime in communities but rather created the illusion of a safer community. Individuals in communities believed â€Å"that crime had been reduced, and seemed to take fewer steps to protect themselves from crime†(Broken Windows 1). These findings would serve as incentives to enforce informal control in a community such as, removing or hiding both social and physical disorders in a community. For example, there is no law against looking drunk and homeless, but this social disorder in a community can portray negligence towards the community, which can invite more disorderly conduct. Officers would then, enforce informal control by either suggesting the person to go somewhere else or making an arrest under the charges of vagrancy. The problem with the logic of the broken windows theory is that it marginalizes poor neighborhoods who generally tend to be populated by blacks and hispanics. So now, policemen